Kenmore 625.388260 UltraSoft 250 Problem

[Golferdude]

My water softener is 7 yrs old.  When it fills the salt tank with water, it isn't draining it back out.  I have taken out the venturi and cleaned it real good.  Still nothing.  When I get it to the point where it should be draining, I unplug the power to keep it in that cycle, it doens't lower any after an hour, level is still right at 10.5".  If i take the line that runs into the salt tank well off from the valve assy, the valve assy. has a vacuum at the port the line connects to. If I plug it back in and cycle to backwash and fast rinse, it drains water out the drain, so the drain isn't clogged, it still has a vacuum, and I have cleaned the venturi. 

Also, after it does try to regeneration, the next morning the tap water is super super salty.  It goes away after someone takes a shower.  Any ideas? 

Thanks,

Jimmy

[RegUS_PatOff]

625.388260 Owners Manual

[kdog]

You need a new rotor and seal kit

Part #'s - rotor=7199232, seal kit=7129716

they don't show up on RepairClinic, might try Sears, or Ecowater

[RegUS_PatOff]

 

not listed at Repair Clinic

7199232 Rotor

click on picture

 

7129716 Seal Kit

click on picture

[Golferdude]

Thanks for the info. What does the rotor do? Is mine worn out or something else? Is this normal? Sorry for all of the questions, just trying to understand what happened.

Thanks,

Jimmy

[kdog]

The disc on the bottom of the rotor wears, as well as the seal, and it allows brine (and hard water) to bypass the resin bed

Also, avoid messin with the factory settings for rise times etc. in the controller, some high foreheads lost many hours of sleep determining what was required there

[Golferdude]

Well I bought the rotor disc, gasket set and a new venturi and gasket. I have put them all in. When I go into the brine cycle, I remove the float valve assy. line from the venturi. I have suction at the venturi valve. I hook the line back up and I get a very slow drain of water from the drain line. I have drained about 7 gallons so far. Isn't this water coming from the salt tank? But my water level isn't going down.

When I put the valve back together, I see most places say just hand tighten the screws with a screw driver.  My screws are so tight it is hard to tighten by hand.  When you tighten the valve, should the top of the valve body make contact with the bottom? I used a 1/4" ratchet and tightened the screws in a crossing pattern, until I just touched the bottom of the valve body.  Is this too tight? I just took the motor off and I can turn the cam/rotor by hand, it is firm but it turns.

One thing I did when I put the softener in (7 years ago) was to plumb valves in on my inlet copper line, outlet copper line, and then a valve on the bypass copper line. From there I ran a copper line to my inlet and one to my outlet on the water softener bypass valve. But my water connection points are above the water softener. To make my connection work, I turned the plastic bypass valve upside down to allow me to connect to the lines above. Would this cause any problems? It has worked in the past but just checking.

[kdog]

The upside down bypass doesn't matter, does the bypass work? - slide it back and forth a couple times and see.

You can tighten up the valve cap, but don't really tourque it down or it will bind - 1/4" ratchet is exactly what I use with just a nice pull.

If you have suction at the outlet of the venturi then when you connect the brinevalve hose, the water should draw from the tank unless the brinevalve is caked in sludgy salt or the salt is bridged in the tank.

you can pull the brinevalve up from the tank and disassemble the float etc, so that you expose the bottom end of the hose, then advance the unit into brinedraw and unplug it so it stays in brinedraw - you should feel suction at the end of the hose - lower it into the water which is built up in your storagetank until it's gone - if you have a heavy buildup of sludge - keep it drawing out and continue to add hot water to dissolve it.

The slow water running to the drain in brinedraw swirls through the nozzle/venturi and is what causes the suction.

Also, if the valve is not tightened down enough, water will get in the channel under the spider gasket, this channel should be thoroughly cleaned and dried prior to placing the gasket in place - if necessary, disassemble and check. Don't be afraid to use the silicone grease supplied in the kit to lubricate the lower part of the rotor

[Golferdude]

Thanks for the tips. I will try that in the morning. I will take the valve back apart to check the spider gasket. I don't think it was totally dry when I put the new gasket in. When you put the plastic spider cover on the spider gasket, do you put the silicone on the top of it also?

I did pull the brinevalve out and tested it when filling the salt tank, it worked. THen I put it into brine, and I put it in a bucket of water and pull it out and could see the water go down into the valve, sucking it out.

Guess worst case, I could put my shop vac hose in there and suck the water out to see if maybe there is alot of sludge.

The water that was draining when in the brine cycle, wasn't real salty, if at all. From what I was seeing in how it works, the supply water is what creates the suction and then mixes with the brine??

Again, thanks for all of your help.

Jimmy

[kdog]

Note that the spider gasket is concaved on one side, that side goes down into the channel, I always out a dob of the grease on top of the gasket and then place the plastic on it, this helps it stay in place while you aim the valve cap/rotor back on. You are correct with your understanding of the brine cycle - and yes, if it was drawing brine, the drain water would taste salty.

A shop Vac is a quick and easy way to clean out the tank and brinewell, good work!

[Golferdude]

Well I pulled the brine valve out and took it apart. I put the softener into the brine cycle and put some water in a bucket. I put the brine valve line into the bucket, and it sucked out all of the water.

I had about 140 lbs of salt in my tank still. So I did use my shop vac to remove the salt and the 10" of water in the tank. When I got all of the salt out, I found I had nearly a 4 inchs of solid salt in the bottom. I used warm water and small iron rod to break up the salt. I removed everything from the tank. Then I ran the softener through a cycle, and it put the water level back down to about 1 inch. So I put 120 lbs of new salt in and have it scheduled to regenerate tonight. Will see what it does in the morning.

[kdog]

[user=30483]Golferdude[/user] wrote:

So I put 120 lbs of new salt in

Why so much ? 1 or 2 bags is enough at one time, you just add it a little more often - filling it to the brim only promotes bridging and sludging

Set it so it regenerates when nobody will use water at all during the regeneration (full cycle approx. 2 hrs)

[Golferdude]

Right now I only have 3 bags in. I will hold off putting in any more until it gets down some. Guess I should at least keep 10" in as a minimum since that is what the brine could get to?? I do have it regenerating at 2:00 a.m.

I got up this morning, and my water level in the salt tank is 2.5" which is where it should be. So it seemed to work. Have to work through using all of the hot water so it can be replinished with the soft water. Hopefully all is good now.

Thanks for all of your help...

JImmy

[kdog]

Any salt in the bottom will make a brine solution, let it run down till you can see the bottom and then add a bag or two, this will help to keep that sludge from forming. Good Job on your repair !!